Amato will not return as Wolfpack coach

RALEIGH -- Chuck Amato talked often of his dream of building the N.C. State University football program into a national contender, confidently saying he set his standards high and wouldn’t change them.

But support for Amato did change — swiftly — this season as the Wolfpack dropped its last seven games to close 3-9. On Sunday, a day after the Pack’s 21-16 loss to East Carolina University, NCSU athletics director Lee Fowler announced that Amato had been fired.

Amato, 60, had a 49-37 overall record in seven seasons and led the Wolfpack to a school-record 11 wins in 2002. He generated unmatched enthusiasm among State fans, who bought lifetime rights for seats and helped fund almost $100 million in additions and renovations to Carter-Finley Stadium.

“No Wolfpack fan can question the excitement and enthusiasm that Chuck Amato brought to the N.C. State football program when he came here in 2000,” Fowler said in a statement. “His dreams have become our dreams and that has translated itself into our great new facilities, record ticket sales and five bowl appearances in seven years.

“However, because the results on the field in two of the last three seasons have fallen far below where we feel our program should be at this point, we have decided to take the program in a new direction.”

Under Amato, was never higher than fourth in the Atlantic Coast Conference and his 25-31 overall ACC record — 8-16 the last three seasons — caused many State fans to cool on the coach. Others were turned off by what they felt was a brash personality.

“My vision was to take this program to places that it had never been before in 100-plus years of playing football,” Amato said in a statement. “We really don’t know how long or how difficult it is to be able to attain those types of goals because we’ve never been there before in football.

“I didn’t come here to use this job as a stepping stone like many others have or could. I wanted to surround myself with people who would help me stretch my vision and not choke my dreams. This is obviously a disappointing decision for me, but I would never do anything to hurt North Carolina State University.”

A 23-9 loss at the University of North Carolina on Nov. 18 was the Wolfpack’s third in a row to the Tar Heels. It came against a team that had fired its coach, John Bunting, and had announced that Butch Davis would be hired after the season.

The loss to ECU at Carter-Finley Stadium was a microcosm of the Wolfpack’s on-the-field problems the last few years: State was called for undisciplined personal fouls and other penalties, and curious offensive play-calling and a lack of execution led to a close defeat.

Of the Wolfpack’s nine losses this season, the most since the 1959 team finished 1-9, seven were by eight or fewer points.

“It’s obvious I, as well as others, are disappointed it turned out this way,” Wolfpack Club president Mac Campbell said Sunday night.

Campbell, from Elizabethtown, said the last two losses “sort of gets everybody’s blood pressure up again.” He said the losing season hadn’t hurt fund-raising this year but added, “If we had another year like this year, it might be interesting.”

Financial terms of Amato’s departure were not disclosed. Under Amato’s contract, which runs through Jan. 5, 2010, he would be owed his annual base salary — $206,601 — for three years and an estimated $600,000 for an annuity.

Fowler must now conduct his second major coaching search this year. In April, men’s basketball coach Herb Sendek accepted the job at Arizona State, and Fowler took five weeks — losing 25 pounds — before hiring Sidney Lowe to head the program.